My brother-in-law in Malta, forwarded Daphne Caruana Galizia’s article (Hawn, x’ismek TMID, 9 October) to me in my office in Germany.

I read it with great pleasure and must tell you that she echoed the sentiments in my own mind. I have been living in Germany for 30 years, where I run a business together with my husband. Although in German we do not have Sinjur or Sinjura as a mode of address, we have a polite form as in Italian and French, and no one addresses us with our first names. We are Frau and Herr Mifsud and our 27-year-old daughter is also Frau Mifsud to all except family and the ones we give permission to address us otherwise.

I spend my summers in Malta, enjoying our lovely house in Zebbug and I too, get a shock every time a handyman or someone in the street or the people who come to clean for us, mostly much younger than we, address me as Doreen.

And my husband as David. But we do not say anything because we would then be regarded as snobs and we are too polite to snub the people, too. Ms Caruana Galizia is also right when she says that even the ones who should know better do this. And I cannot stand the hi either.

Why should an 18-year-old who gives me a French manicure address me as hi?

Or worse still, the stewardess in the Air Malta Business Class section? This happened to me and I wrote to KM to complain about it straightaway. I thought that was going too far.

I would like to draw to your attention to another communication flaw. This time in business life. When I call someone from my office here in Germany, I identify myself with my name. I say Guten Tag, this is Doreen Mifsud speaking from TTP-travel. For most Maltese, this is unheard of. They never identify themselves and you always have to ask for clarification.

The mode of address when you get a call from Malta is something like this: Hello, ha’nkellem il David hi. If you are lucky you get a please! This is usual practice, whether it is the banks, airlines, travel agents etc.

I could go on and on but I will stop with the reflection that I was lucky enough to learn all these lessons not only from the excellent government school I had the good fortune to attend in the 1960s but from my own parents, to whom our upbringing was of the utmost importance.

Doreen Mifsud

Hainburg

Germany